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Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

My son just turned 1 last week. Other than my husband I do not have a lot of breastfeeding support. I keep getting comments from friends and family like, "now that he's one have you weaned him?" To be quite honest I am in uncharted waters here and we are taking it day to day. My son loves nursing and if I were to wean him or stop him it would make him very upset. How long do/are you nursing for? Also my mother in law keeps pushing to start him on milk. Should I introduce milk? Does he really need it if he is nursing 5+ times a day? When do you introduce milk? He eats any and all solids, he loves food! He also has one sometimes two cups of extremely diluted juice a day. Any input, advice, or support would be great!

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

Hi, and welcome! Congrats on making it to the one-year mark--that's a big accomplishment! You'll find many mamas on this forum who are still nursing 2, 3, or 4 year olds. There are also plenty of moms here who either weaned their kids, or their kids self-weaned, sometime before 2 years old. Whatever you want to do with regard to nursing your toddler, whether it is nursing until they're 4 or weaning at 18 months, you'll find support and people with similar experiences here. My DS is 2 (28 months to be exact) and we're still nursing 3-5x per day. I don't see it stopping any time real soon. My hope is that he'll self-wean but it kind of depends when he is ready to be done...I don't know if I want to nurse a four year old. (Nothing against those who do though).

Re: pressure to wean, you can tell your MIL and anyone who asks that the World HealthOrganization recommends continuing to nurse until age 2 as a MINIMUM, not a maximum. Hopefully that recommendation from a respected health organization will get them off your back with respect to weaning!

As far as introducing cow's milk, you certainly can, but you also don't need to. As long as your LO is nursing a minimum of 3-5x/day they are theoretically getting their dairy needs met that way, so whether to include cow's milk is personal preference. My son drinks about 2 cups of whole milk a day in addition to nursing. He's skinny and can at times be a finicky eater so I'm happy to have a high-calorie, high-protein, high-good-fat food that he enjoys and will eat consistently. There are plenty of moms here though who don't give cow's milk at all. Personal preference.

Last edited by @llli*joshuas.mommy; February 27th, 2014 at 02:06 PM.
Reason: Typo

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

My son is 2.5 and he nurses still. There was no way he was even close to ready to nurse when he was 12 months. We did introduce cows milk at 12 months but he only had it durring meals. You definately don't have to introduce it if you don't want to as long as your son is nursing 4 times a day. My family was also very vocal in their disapproval of continued nursing, and when my son was 18 months old we stooped nursing in public, and when they assumed that we stopped nursing I just let them . I had learner that they didn't really want to know all the reasons why we continued to nurse, and i wasn't going to change their minds.

-Arin

Sealed for time and eternity to Chris on 08/26/10
Mom to Ezra 06/24/11
and Rebekah 12/27/13
Proudly

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

Congrats on a year of nursing your little one! My nursling is turning two in a couple of weeks, she still loves nursing and so do I! It's such a wonderful way to mother a toddler - there are very few things a little nursing can't fix! I agree with the PPs about the cow's milk, it sounds like you are nursing plenty, so you don't need to start it, but you can if you want. It's been really helpful to me to hang out here on the forums to be "around" lots of other moms nursing toddlers. You might also consider going to La Leche League meetings for more support.

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

with the previous posts!

One way to deal with the "now that your baby is x years old, have you weaned?" comments is to put a big smile on your face and say "You know what? We're both really still enjoying it and the pediatrician says it's the best thing for him, so we're definitely not hurrying to wean." If you act really confident and positive about your decisions, people will be less apt to criticize you for them. Act like you're worried about what other people think, and they'll feel like they've been given a pass to impart their "wisdom".

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

I read this book shortly after my son turned one and found it very helpful. There's also How Weaning Happens. I also started going to LLL meetings at a year, just to meet other moms IRL who were still nursing toddlers.
Ds is 2.5 and still nurses 6-8+ times a day even though he loves solids. So I'll have two nurslings when our second arrives in April Try explaining that to skeptical relatives!

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

I used to say my goal was 1 year. I thought I would stop then because of the "stigma." After being on this forum and going to a couple meetings I plan to nurse until she is at least 2 or self weans. Knowing the WHO recommendation helped my confidence. So does being around other like-minded mothers. I may stop nursing I public after 18 months or so but that is a long way from now.

Re: Son just turned 1 last week - I have questions! Help :)

Originally Posted by @llli*epenrod

My son just turned 1 last week. Other than my husband I do not have a lot of breastfeeding support. I keep getting comments from friends and family like, "now that he's one have you weaned him?" To be quite honest I am in uncharted waters here and we are taking it day to day. My son loves nursing and if I were to wean him or stop him it would make him very upset. How long do/are you nursing for? Also my mother in law keeps pushing to start him on milk. Should I introduce milk? Does he really need it if he is nursing 5+ times a day? When do you introduce milk? He eats any and all solids, he loves food! He also has one sometimes two cups of extremely diluted juice a day. Any input, advice, or support would be great!

I felt the exact same way a few months ago, mine is 14 months. At first it was a little strange, getting all those comments and feeling like somehow my baby was now not a baby and what does that mean for nursing? After a month or so nursing a toddler felt very very normal. The real difference is that it's more fun, and even hilarious at times. My daughter tries to store all of her most favorite toys in my bra lately, it's so cute. LOL!

Taking it day by day is the perfect strategy! Exactly what you said. Some days we nurse 20 times, sometimes 7 times, each day is a bit different.

When you introduce milk is totally up to you and at this point unnecessary if you are nursing that many times. My Dr. said the same thing, actually both Dr.'s at our practice. You could kindly tell your MIL that he is a baby human...drinking human milk! Or just say he doesn't need any milk at this point, he's already drinking your milk. Which is tailored to meet his nutritional needs much better than a mama cow ever could.

And adding in that WHO recommendation makes for an easy way to make anyone stop questioning you very quickly. It worked great with my own mom! She never said a word after I told her that.